Yours all the art to wield the arms of fire;

Then bid the thunders of the dreadful tire
Against the walls of proud Byzantium roar,
Till headlong driven from Europe's ravish'd shore
To their cold Scythian wilds, and dreary dens,
By Caspian mountains, and uncultured fens,
Their fathers' seats beyond the Wolgian lake*,
The barbarous race of Saracen betake.

And hark, to you the woeful Greek exclaims,
The Georgian fathers and th' Armenian dames,
Their fairest offspring from their bosoms torn,
A dreadful tribute+, loud imploring mourn.

*

-beyond the Wolgian lake-The Caspian sea, so called from the large river Volga or Wolga, which empties itself into it.

+ Their fairest offspring from their bosoms torn,

A dreadful tribute!-By this barbarous policy the tyranny of the Ottomans has been long sustained. The troops of the Turkish infantry and cavalry, known by the name of Janizaries, and Spahis, are thus supported, and the scribes in office called Mufti, says Sandys," are the sons of Christians (and those the most completely furnished by nature) taken in their childhood from their miserable parents by a levy made every five years, or oftener or seldomer, as occasion requireth."

Alas, in vain! their offspring captive led,
In Hagar's son's unhallow'd temples bred,
To rapine train'd, arise a brutal host,

The Christian terror, and the Turkish boast.

Το

Yet sleep, ye powers of Europe, careless sleep, in vain your eastern brethren weep;

you

Yet not in vain their woe-wrung tears shall sue;
Though small the Lusian realms, her legions few,
The guardian oft by heaven ordain'd before,
The Lusian race shall guard Messiah's lore.
When heaven decreed to crush the Moorish foe,
Heaven gave the Lusian spear to strike the blow.
When heaven's own laws o'er Afric's shores were

heard,

The sacred shrines the Lusian heroes rear'd*;

Nor shall their zeal in Asia's bounds expire,

Asia subdued shall fume with hallowed fire:

The sacred shrines the Lusian heroes rear'd-See the note on page 131, Vol. II.

When the red sun the Lusian shore forsakes,
And on the lap of deepest west * awakes,
O'er the wild plains, beneath unincensed skies
The sun shall view the Lusian altars rise.

And could new worlds by human step be trod,
Those worlds should tremble at the Lusian nodt.

*

-of deepest west-Alludes to the discovery and conquest of the Brazils by the Portuguese.

+ at the Lusian nod.-If our former defences of the exuberant declamations of Camoens are allowed by the critic, we doubt not but the digression, now concluded, will appear with peculiar propriety. The poet having brought his heroes to the shore of India, indulges himself with a review of the state of the western and eastern worlds; the latter of which is now, by the labour of his heroes, rendered accessible to the former. The purpose of his poem is also strictly kept in view. The West and the East he considers as two great empires, the one of the true religion, the other of a false. The professors of the true, disunited and destroying each other; the professors of the false religion all combined to extirpate the adherents of the other. He upbraids the professors of the true religion for their vices, particularly for their disunion and for deserting the interests of holy faith. His countrymen, however, he boasts, have been its defenders and planters, and, without the assistance of their brother-powers, will plant it in Asia. This, as it is the purpose of his hero, is directly to the

And now their ensigns blazing o'er the tide
On India's shore the Lusian heroes ride.

High to the fleecy clouds resplendent far
Appear the regal towers of Malabar,
Imperial Calicut, the lordly seat

Of the first monarch of the Indian state.
Right to the port the valiant GAMA bends,
With joyful shouts a fleet of boats attends;
Joyful their nets they leave and finny prey,
And crowding round the Lusians, point the way.
A herald now, by VASCO's high command

Sent to the monarch, treads the Indian strand;
The sacred staff he bears, in gold he shines,
And tells his office by majestic signs.
As to and fro, recumbent to the gale,

The harvest waves along the yellow dale,

subject of the poem, and the honour, which heaven, he says, vouchsafed to his countrymen, in choosing them to defend and propagate its laws, is mentioned in the genuine spirit of that religious enthusiasm which breathes through the two great epic poems of Greece and Rome, and which gives an air of the most solemn importance to the Gierusalemme of Tasso.

So round the herald press the wondering throng,
Recumbent waving as they pour along;

And much his manly port and strange attire,
And much his fair and ruddy hue admire:
When speeding through the crowd with eager haste,
And honest smiles, a son of Afric prest:
Enrapt with joy the wondering herald hears
Castilia's manly tongue salute his ears*.
What friendly angel from thy Tago's shore
Has led thee hither? cries the joyful Moor.
Then hand in hand, the pledge of faith, conjoin'd,
O joy beyond the dream of hope to find,

Castilia's manly tongue salute his ears.-This is according to the truth of history. While the messenger, sent ashore by Gama, was borne here and there, and carried off his feet by the throng, who understood not a word of his language, he was accosted in Spanish by a Moorish merchant, a native of Tunis, who, according to Osorius, had been the chief person with whom king John II. had formerly contracted for military stores. He proved himself an honest agent, and of infinite service to Gama, with whom he returned to Portugal, where, according to Faria, he died in the Christian communion. He was named Monzaida.